Origins
by Jadeling
Summary: One shot featuring a nine year old Terry starting his first day of school. Ever wonder how he first noticed Dana Tan? Well, here's my take.


_Disclaimer: I don't own anything! If I owned **Batman Beyond**, do you think I'd still be writing fanfiction? Heck no, I'd be out there writing the comic books and getting paid for it! **Batman Beyond** is the property of DC Comics and WB animation. Batman is the creation of Bob Kane, and the characters from **Batman Beyond** like Terry McGinnis and Dana Tan were created by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. I just like to play with them. I write for my enjoyment and the enjoyment of others; I've not nor will I receive any payment for this fic, so please don't sue._

_I don't own **Sailor Moon**, or** Wonder Woman**, nor do I own **Artemis Fowl**.  
_

_Author's Notes: I was going to write a chapter for my other story, but it spiraled out into this little story all on it's own. The Wonder Woman mentioned, is based on the red-haired comic version, which has never been seen in DCAU, but hey's it's about 50 years in the future, I can pretend that Diana may have taken a break/stepped down and had another Amazon called Artemis take over for a little while. You can read my other D/T fics with this one, it fits in the same universe, but since Dana and Terry are nine, you don't need to read them to understand this one.  
_

**Origins**

Terry dislikes the first day of school. It symbolizes the official end of summer, free mornings, and fun weekdays until holidays and the random day off. It also begins endless hours of boring stuff like math and history. Honestly, why does he need to know when some guy came to Gotham if he's dead? It means being stuck in a building for most of the day and even when he gets home, he usually has some type of homework to do.

However, that isn't the main reason why he hates the first day of school.

Terry can't stand roll call.

Every year since he started pre-school, he'd dread the moment when the teacher would call out his name. Why didn't his parents give him a cool name like Michael, John, or Lucas? Even his baby brother has a cooler name than he does. Terrence? Really? It was such a wimpy name; and it didn't help that "Terry" could also be a girl's name. It didn't matter how many times he did this; there would be at least one idiot who would decide to make fun of him. Hopefully this year, the insults will be better. Last year it was, "What happened _Terri? _Your parents expected a girl and got you instead?"

The teacher calls out his name, and he raises his hand and dutifully replies he prefers Terry over Terrence. He hears some snickering coming from the far corner of the classroom. It comes from a brown haired boy that Terry doesn't recognize; so he must be new. He thinks the boy's name is Art, or Artie, or something, but he then notices the teacher pausing over another name.

"Dah Ziah?" She calls out uncertainly.

"Da Shya," the small Asian girl sitting two rows over from him, replies. "Everyone just calls me Dana, Miss Tulie."

Terry hears louder tittering from the same corner as before, and Dana seems to shrink a little at the noise. He narrows his eyes at the kid. It's one thing to make fun of his name, because it _is_ lame. However, Dana is usually nice; and she's a girl. His father would call it a "low blow."

After roll call, Miss Tulie explains some of her rules and expectations with the students before the lunch bell rings. She escorts them to the lunchroom, and after Terry goes through the lunch line, he finds there are no more empty tables, but he sees Jared, Chelsea, and Dana sharing a table. "Is it okay for me to sit here?" He asks. They all nod, and ask each other about their summers.

When Terry begins to talk about his new baby brother and how he wishes his parents would just return Matt; the girls giggle at his expression. He decides he likes the sound of Dana's giggles. They're soft; and they remind of the sounds his favorite stuff plush makes; not that he's admitting he still playing with stuff animals or anything. "So, why did Miss Tulie have trouble with saying your name?" Terry questions; hoping to change the subject. "It seems like every year the teacher always has problems with it."

Dana's cheeks turn a light pink. "A lot of people have trouble saying my first name because there's an 'x' in it. I've gotten use to having people call me 'Dana,' instead; it's my middle name." She tells them.

The two boys give her an odd look, "An 'X?' I don't remember hearing anything like that during roll call." Jared tells her.

"In Chinese, 'X-i-a' is pronounced 'Shya." She explains, "Actually, I like Dà Xià better than Dana. Dà Xià means 'Long Summer,' while Dana means 'from Denmark.'"

"'From Denmark?' How stupid," someone sneers. The group turns to see the same boy who laughed during roll call earlier.

"Oh yeah? Well, what's so great about your name, Artie?" Terry demands after seeing how uncomfortable Dana and Chelsea become.

"First of all, _Terrence,_ it's not Artie; it's Artemis, after the Greek god of hunting." The boy proclaims proudly.

Chelsea and Dana toss a glance at each other, which goes unnoticed by the boys. "Artemis? Dana, wasn't that the same name as the cartoon character we saw at your house the other day?" Chelsea asks innocently.

"You mean the white cat? Yeah, it was the same name."

This causes both Terry and Jared snicker while Artemis starts to sputter.

"Hey, did you know that a Wonder Woman also had the name Artemis?" Chelsea also asks.

"Well, that makes sense since Artemis is Greek." Dana points out. "Oh, and _she _was also the goddess of wildlife and the moon." She informs them, "Which means, you," Dana looks at the wide mouthed boy, "were either named after a girl or a cartoon cat."

Terry and Jared dissolve into laughter at this revelation. Unfortunately, they don't notice how angry Artemis becomes or how his hands tighten. Jared's shout is their only warning when the furious boy lunges at the two of them. Chelsea is quick enough to dodge him, but Artemis is able grab a fistful of Dana's hair. He pulls so hard that she cries out and tears begin to form in her eyes. "Take it back!" He yells at her.

"Let her go," Terry and Jared demand.

"Make me," he sneers at them.

Jared pushes the boy, while Terry hits the arm that's pulling on Dana's hair, causing him to release her. This only makes Artemis angrier so he pushes back at Jared, and tries to hit Terry. Jared falls against the table, while Terry dodges the other boy. Chelsea starts yelling for a teacher to help, but at this point, the commotion causes various other students to form a little circle around the group.

"Fight, fight, fight!" The other children chant as Terry and Artemis grapple with each other. It takes a couple of minutes for some of teachers to pull the two boys apart. They both have scratches and bruises on them, but Artemis definitely had more marks on him than Terry.

"What is going on here?" One of the teachers harshly questions.

"I was just minding my own business," Artemis begins, "when these jerks started to make fun of me and then one of them threw something at me."

"He's lying!" Chelsea interjects. "We were just eating lunch at the table when Artemis started to make fun of Dana and Terry."

"I did not."

"Did too!"

"Well, she deserved it. She was telling lies about me."

"She wasn't," Jared angrily protests, "Dana only pointed out the origin of his name, and he lost it."

"Yeah, look at her," Terry points out. It's then that the adults take notice of the small Chinese girl huddled off to the side crying and holding her head. Her teacher sees some of the hair that Artemis pulled out of her head and cringes when she sees that he managed to pull a large clump of out. Miss Tulie is surprised to see he didn't pull some of her skin off, considering how big the clump is for a nine year old hand. She kneels down by her, while her colleague takes the three boys towards the nurse's office.

"Dana, are you all right?" She asks softly. The girl stops crying long enough to nod her head. "Do you want to go to the nurse's office?" When Dana nods again, Miss Tulie asks Chelsea to walk her to the office before turning her attention back to the other students. "All right, break it up; there's nothing else to see here, kids. Either finish your lunches or go outside for recess."

* * *

The principle, Mrs. Karen Han, is waiting for them once they get to the nurse's office. Jared gets a quick once over before getting a couple of bandages for some cuts. Both Terry and Artemis have more injuries, and Mrs. Han asks to speak to them individually as the nurse bandages Artemis. Terry doesn't hear what the other boy says, but he can guess it isn't the truth.

She then asks him what happened, and with some prompting, he tells her how Artemis laughed at Miss. Tulie and Dana at roll call, and how he disrupted their lunch. When she asks him if they teased the other boy, he turns a little red. "We might have," he admits. "But he started to pull hard on her hair. He didn't have to hurt her; my dad always said it's wrong to hurt a girl." Terry protests.

"And that's when you hit him?"

"We told him to let her go, and he told us to: 'make him.'" He explains.

"Why didn't you ask for help from your teacher or another adult?"

Terry squirms a little in his seat, "It happened too fast, and I didn't think of it at the time. I mean Dana started to cry, and we just wanted him to stop, but then he came after us. Dana's okay though, right?"

Mrs. Han gives him a faint smile. "Yes, she's all right," then she becomes serious again. "However, that doesn't excuse what you did."

"I know."

"When the nurse is done, you'll need to go to my office to wait for your mother, all right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Oh, joy.

* * *

Sitting at the principal's office, he winces as he realizes how his mother will react to the news that he got into a fight on the first day of school. Well, at least he was winning the fight before it got broken up. He smiles at the thought.

Dana then walks into the room, and Terry's glad to see she's not crying anymore, but she's holding an ice pack on her head. "Does it still hurt?"

She shrugs a little before sitting next to him. "The ice pack helps; the nurse says it should prevent swelling."

Artemis looks like he's about to say something snide when the principal's door opens and both Jared and Chelsea walk out with the Mrs. Han. "Chelsea, you can go back to class now. Dà Xià, will you come in, please?" Chelsea waves timidly towards her friends, as Jared takes Dana's old seat. Terry doesn't know how long Dana spends in the office before he sees his mom walk into the room.

Mary sighs when she catches sight of her son. "Terry, Jared, it's the first day of school, and both of you know better." She admonishes.

"Sorry, Mom," he apologizes sheepishly.

"I know, Mrs. McGinnis." Jared replies in the same tone as two other mothers enter the office's waiting room.

"My poor Artie! What did those brutes do to you? I demand to see Mrs. Han immediately." All heads turn to see the bleached blond woman currently coddling her son.

"Brutes?" Jared's mother repeats. "I know my son, and I _know_ he doesn't start fights."

"I know _my son_ quite well too, and I can tell you he's an angel." The other woman declares oblivious to the malicious smirk her son gives to the other boys.

Mary opens her mouth to respond, when door opens to reveal a petite but chic Chinese woman. She goes towards the secretary, "Excuse me, but I got a call earlier saying that my daughter, Dà Xià, has been hurt."

"Oh, Dr. Tan, your daughter is with Mrs. Han; I'll let her know that you're here." The secretary tells her before calling the principal on the intercom.

The three mothers hear the principal acknowledge her secretary's message, and within moments, the door opens and Dana walks out towards her mother. "Dà Xià, nĭ hǎo bù hǎo?" Her mother asks.

"Hǎo a," she replies quietly.

Xiù Tan pats her daughter's head lightly, and gives her a small plastic bag filled with cookies, before raising her head towards Mrs. Han. "I'm assuming there's a perfectly logical explanation?"

"I'd say emotional more than logical, if the four of you will please come in." The principal ushers them in as the children continue to wait outside.

Artemis' mother immediately begins to whine to Mrs. Han. "I demand you suspend those two little-"

"Before you finish, Ms Hunter; I suggest you may want to hear what I have to say first."

The blond simply pouts, but does stop her tirade and sits ungraciously down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. Xiù decides to stand by the door, while Mary and Lorraine take the other seats. "Normally, a two-day suspension is the punishment for fighting in school, but I'm willing to reduce it to a week with no recess assuming that there are no repeats from the three boys." Noticing Artemis' mother is about to protest, she continues. "I've talked to the five students involved, along with their teacher and the lunch monitor and most agree that Artemis instigated the affair."

Ms. Hunter begins to sputter while the other mothers raise an eyebrow at her, "Well, he must have been severely provoked, because he would never do anything so bad."

"I will admit that Dà Xià and Chelsea probably shouldn't have been teasing him about his name, but considering how he behaved earlier in class, I'm not surprised by it." Seeing the other about to speak again, she cuts her off. "Unless you want to accuse Miss. Tulie of lying, I've been told that Artemis had the bad habit of laughing at certain students during roll call.

Apparently, your son heard the four other students talking and decided to join in the conversation uninvited. He then proceeded to tell them what his name meant, and the two girls began to question where else they heard the name, Artemis. He didn't seem to like their references nor did he like it when they corrected him. He had stated Artemis was a god, not a goddess. He pulled out Dà Xià 's hair in retaliation. Terry and Jared didn't really get involved until then. They asked him to let her go and he refused. The result is why we are currently having this conversation. Now, Ms. Hunter, do you still want me to suspend the parties involved?"

The woman looked around the room obviously frustrated but shook her head. "That won't be necessary." She responds tightly.

"I feel it necessary to warn you that you should prepare Artemis for similar teasing as he gets older." Mrs. Han informs the mother.

"Whatever for? I named him Artemis, because he was the main character of a book my brother use to read." She retorts dismissively.

Throughout the entire exchange, Mary McGinnis had tried very hard to keep a straight face, but the last statement broke her resolve. "Because you named your son after the Greek goddess of childbirth and virgins," she blurts out. "Didn't you do any research before you gave him that name?"

Lorraine finally lets out the giggles she has been straining to keep in, while Mrs Han looks down at her desk to hide her smile. Xiù places her hand by her mouth, but her twinkling eyes betray her amusement. Soon, Lorraine's giggles become louder and turn into laughter.

Ms. Hunter, however, doesn't look so amused, "Virgins?" She squeaks.

Outside, the children hear Lorraine's laughter and turn to each other. "What do you think is so funny?" Terry asks the two sitting by him.

Jared and Dana both shrug their bewilderment at the situation. Dana then opens her bag of cookies and turns to Terry, "Oreo?"

After accepting one, she offers some to Jared as well, when the door opens and a very flustered Ms. Hunter walks out and calls out to her son. "We have to do some serious talking, Artie, but first we need to pick up your sister, Bambi, from school."

Dana's eyebrows rise in surprise at those words, but the pair hurry out of the room before she could say anything. Her mother sees the expression, "Something wrong?"

Dana looks up at her mother. "Wasn't Bambi a boy in the book and afraid of hunters?"

Xiù sighs, "Yes, Bambi originally was a boy's name."

"So, why did she name her son after a goddess who doesn't like men and her daughter after a male deer?"

It's the combination of Dana's innocent confusion and Mrs. Hunter ignorance, which causes Lorraine to begin laughing again. "Oh, sweetheart, trust me, you don't want to know." She tells the young girl in between giggles.

Dana only looks more confused, but nods while the two boys exchanges smirks. This new information was golden, and they both couldn't wait to use it against the little twip as soon as possible.

Mrs. Han tells the two boys their respective punishments, which does put a slight damper in their moods, but they know it could have been worse and their mothers aren't so annoyed at them anymore. Xiù gently pulls her own daughter's hand. "If it's all right; I'd like to take my daughter home now. It has been a very eventful day." The other mothers also express similar sentiments, to which the principal agrees. Jared and his mother are first to leave the room.

Realizing that everyone's leaving, Dana's eyes change from confused to anxious and she tugs her mother's hand several times before her mother kneels down to her daughter's eye level. Dana whispers something into her ear. When Xiù pulls back, she gives her daughter a bemused smile, "Well, go on, if you hurry you may catch them before they leave."

Dana turns again and taps Terry on the shoulder.

"Hey, Dana," Terry says. He notices she seems to be very nervous by the way she nibbles on her lips and the light pink tinge to her ears.

"Um, hey Terry…" she looks down at her hands slightly embarrassed by the small audience watching them. "Here, thank you," she thrusts the rest of her cookies into his hand before he can react. "I'll see you tomorrow," she tells him before grabbing her mother's hand again.

Terry stares at the cookies then grins, "All right, hey, wanna play Justice League with Jared and me during recess when our detention is over?"

She also grins before responding enthusiastically. "Okay!"

It's at that moment Terry decides that Dana's kind of pretty when she smiles, and he kind of likes it when she smiles at him. He also decides that maybe being in school isn't such a bad thing either.

* * *

_Jadeling's Notes: What can I say, chibi Terry and chibi Dana just seem uber cute to me. Get it? It's tells the origin of why Dana uses her middle name, how Terry began crushing on Dana, and how he started to defend his fellow students from bullies. _

_The idea of Dana using her middle name instead of her given Chinese name is based on the fact that my sister uses her middle name for everything, her driver's license, on her work documents, even her voter's registration, even though her Chinese name is her legal name. Why? Because growing up, no one could pronounce it properly unless they were Chinese and use to the pronunciation combination her name has. Even my parents now introduce her by her middle name when we meet new people, because it's easier to say. I don't even think her past boyfriends knew about her first name either._

_On the other hand, it was great code word to have if family friends had to pick us up from school. If someone could say our Chinese names without butchering it too badly, we knew they had to be okay. Oooh, idea for another possible chappy._

_The other reason for writing this fic is that I've notice people trying to be cool and give their children unique/different names or spellings and I end up wondering if some of these parents really do their homework. At least, do some research before possibly scarring the kid for life, that and I really don't understand why Artemis Fowl is a boy named after a goddess who never really liked men all that much. _

_any whoo...anyone get cavities yet?  
_

_Dà Xià – Long/Big Summer_

_Xiù—Elegant_

_nĭ hǎo bù hǎo – Are you okay? Literally, you good (or) not good?_

_Hǎo a- okay/good_


End file.
